It’s Almost 100% of the Game : Because of Special Schools and Coaching, Pitching Has Become an Even More Dominant Aspect of High School Softball

Coaches usually go to great lengths to promote their sport and, sometimes, they go to equal lengths to suppress that sport’s problems.

But Jim Reach, Santa Ana College softball coach, makes no attempt to obscure the plight of high school softball.

This sport has always been dominated by pitching, but with the influx and influence of outside pitching schools and coaches in the past decade, pitchers have become even more prominent.

A perfect game is no longer an astonishing feat. No-hitters are common. Anything less than a shutout is a bad day for most pitchers.

For the pitchers, whose performance level has vastly exceeded that of the hitters, this is great. For some batters, tough pitching provides a challenge. For others who have trouble hitting such pitching, the game has become exasperating.

And for some fans and, yes, even some coaches, the game has become boring.

“As a student of the game, it’s nice to look at the finer intricacies of a pitcher and appreciate a no-hitter,” Reach said. “But as an average person, I’d rather see some more action. More action means more hitting.

“I admire the great pitchers, but to see that day in and day out as a spectator, I think it gets old. I’d love to see a 12-11 game now and then, but you won’t see that with good pitching. It definitely takes the fun out of the game for the players who are out there to have fun.”

Orange County high school pitchers have compiled some impressive statistics this season. Six of the county’s best--Ocean View’s Jackie Oakley, Cypress’ Nicky Luce, Valencia’s Michelle Granger, Garden Grove’s Leslie Osterman, Edison’s Julie Carpenter and Kennedy’s Chris Clammer--have combined to throw 10 perfect games and 18 no-hitters.

At the head of the class is Oakley, a junior who is 28-0 and has thrown four perfect games, two no-hitters and 24 shutouts to lead undefeated Ocean View (29-0) into the Southern Section 4-A playoffs. The top-seeded Seahawks face Hart in today’s quarterfinals.

Oakley has struck out 333 in 181 innings this year and has allowed just five runs, three of them earned.

Granger, a freshman at Valencia, threw five no-hitters and struck out 298 in 137 innings, including a Southern Section record 31 strikeouts in a 15-inning game against Western. She turned the Tigers from a 1-22 team last season to an 11-11 team this year.

Osterman threw two perfect games and four no-hitters, Luce had two perfect games and three no-hitters, Carpenter had one perfect game and three no-hitters and Clammer threw one perfect game and one no-hitter.

But what of their victims, the hitters?

“You can’t win a game unless you can hit, and it’s frustrating to not even get on base,” said Huntington Beach freshman Tammy Chick, whose team suffered a no-hitter and a three-hitter at the hands of Oakley this season. “But it’s part of the game, and if a pitcher is that good, the more power to her.”

Chick struck out twice against Oakley when the Oilers lost to the Seahawks in the last week of the regular season, and she admitted that the star pitcher was intimidating.

“It’s hard for me and everyone else,” she said. “There’s a lot of pressure on a batter because you have to be watching for so many different pitches.”

Oakley was extremely tough on Chick’s teammate, Cathy Rice, who struck out three times that day. She was so awed by Oakley’s dominance that she dreaded going to the plate.

“Knowing what I did the last time up, I really didn’t look forward to getting up again,” said Rice, a senior outfielder. “I went up there every time and said, ‘Oh no, I’m gonna strike out again.’ I let myself and the team down, and that’s not good.”

Said Brea-Olinda Coach Sharon Caperton: “The ball is past you and back to the pitcher before you swing sometimes. It’s kind of an ego deflator for the batter, but for the pitcher, it’s super. It makes the batters look bad, and you don’t want that.”

Some coaches want the pitching rubber, which is 40 feet from the plate, to be moved back two to four feet, but no official proposals for a change have been submitted to the CIF Southern Section.

Besides, increasing the distance between the pitcher and batter may do little to alleviate the discrepancy.

“That could be a fallacy because for any kid who has any junk at all, her pitches could work better from a longer distance,” Huntington Beach Coach Frank Goldstein said. “Hitters have to get acclimated to the better pitching. They’re going to have to go to hitting classes and clinics and really concentrate on hitting.”

The pitchers have expended more effort than the hitters. Most receive year-round instruction at schools such as Ron LeFebvre’s School of Baseball and Softball in Orange, or they receive private instruction from coaches such as Dick Eagle, Chuck Cheek, Bill Owens, Don Sarno, Bill Campbell and Sharon Nichols.

They learn the fundamentals of pitching at an early age. They learn how to throw different pitches, such as the rise, drop, curve, screwball and changeup. They learn the psychology of pitching--when to throw a certain pitch and how to set up batters.

As a result, pitchers have evolved as the dominant force in the game. But an undesirable byproduct of excellent pitching has been a reduction in the amount of game action.

Offensive strategy has become repetitious and predictable. If a player reaches first base, the next batter will usually try to sacrifice. Teams depend more on an opponent’s mistakes than their own hitting ability to score runs. There isn’t much action for the outfielders, either.

“It seems as if the only people actually doing anything are the pitcher and the catcher,” Rice said. “When there’s a pitching duel, there’s not much action for the rest of the team, and it gets a little boring standing out there. I’d rather see a close game with a lot of action.”

Reach: “It becomes a two-person play, and that totally changes your offense. The two things you must be able to do in this game is bunt and defend against the bunt. It takes away some excitement, but percentage-wise, the bunt is your best chance to score.”

Osterman: “Some of my friends and fans from my school have told me, ‘God, your games are boring,’ and they don’t come as much. There’s not much hitting and running, but I think the people who really know softball still enjoy it.”

A little more hitting would make the game much more enjoyable, and some think it’s just a matter of time before the hitting catches up with the pitching. But for that to happen, batters must exert an effort comparable to what the pitchers put forth.

Ocean View Coach Sarah Oakley, Jackie’s mother, encourages her players to go to the batting cages and to swing a bat in front of the mirror.

“The good hitters work hard, but they don’t work as hard as the pitchers,” Oakley said. “They have to accept the mental challenge, too. They really don’t get ready to hit--even in the on-deck circle, they’re talking to fans or parents. They’re not into the game like college kids are. They have to envision getting a hit. It will take practice.”

Westminster Coach Dick Martin: “Eventually, the hitting will catch up to the pitching. I remember 10 years ago when girls didn’t even slide, and look at it now.”

LeFebvre, father of Cal State Fullerton pitcher Susan LeFebvre, has been teaching softball for 32 years. His school also offers instruction in hitting, fielding and catching, but the emphasis is on pitching.

Of the 2,000 players enrolled, 1,800 are pitchers, but, according to LeFebvre, both the hitting and catching schools are growing.

“The catching school is growing because we can’t find anyone to catch our pitchers,” LeFebvre said.